HTC BlinkFeed may soon be overridden by adverts

HTC has reported its worst earnings since 2009, leaving the once great mobile provider in ruins and scouring for any revenue. One potential area it has not looked at is BlinkFeed, the Flipboard style news feed on the front of the One M7, M8 and M9.

BlinkFeed has been a prominent part of Sense for a while, but HTC has not made any money from the software development. This latest effort looks to cash in through adverts inside the RSS feed.

The adverts would be for games on the Google Play App Store like Clash of Clans, alongside new music and movies on the store. HTC is partnering with several major advertisers to make sure BlinkFeed is full of different ads.

It was only a matter of time before HTC used this home-screen to its advantage, considering the older smartphones make using BlinkFeed compulsory. It has loosened up this year, but still BlinkFeed remains on all One M9 devices.

HTC already has a small number of active BlinkFeed users, this advertising move might tip them over the edge. If that happens, BlinkFeed might be dead in the water just like most of Sense’s other service updates.

The One M9 has not managed to attract millions of buyers in the same way the Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6 did, meaning HTC is set for another year of mediocrity. If it fails to keep fans interested in its own services, it is going to lose out big time to other smartphone makers and app developers.